Many students leave everything behind for a piece of the game

As basketball fans anxiously await the first round tip-off of March Madness, students are preparing to make arrangements in an attempt to balance basketball and school, March 18-April 5.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament is notorious for being a crucial three weeks for sports fans in which they develop a dire need to stay updated on scores and brackets.

Some students find the tournament to be so distracting, they’re unable to focus on anything else. End result””school is no longer a priority.

Sports marketing major, Jeff Nelson, thinks the tournament is without a doubt the most distracting sporting event.

“It’s the biggest tournament ever,” Nelson said. “With a lot of the games going on during the day, I seriously skip class to watch them.”

Although Nelson enjoys watching all the teams play, and has chosen No. 1 seed Kentucky as his favorite, he admits that if his long-time beloved UCLA would have made the tournament his entire life would have likely come to a halt.

“If UCLA were in it I would skip everything to watch them,” Nelson said. “It’s completely different watching your own team than any other team play.”

While Nelson enjoys the general intensity and excitement of the tournament, junior Erik Mestjian finds himself indulged in more than just watching for entertainment.

“There are some days I haven’t gone to class because I’ve been creating my own bracket,” Mestjian said. “The fact that I have money on each game makes the tournament seem much more important than school at the time.”

It may be difficult for those who are not basketball fans to understand the passion and exhilaration of a tournament, or how a few games could cause someone to completely disregard school as a priority. But for Public Relations major Brent Hofmann, there’s no question in his mind that March Madness is one of the best times of the year.

“It’s the most competitive tournament around,” Hofmann said. “There are basketball games to watch all day for almost a month. There are always game-winning shots and unexpected wins and losses. I get pumped just thinking about it.”

Hofmann admits he devotes a majority of his spare time to watching the games, but he doesn’t intend on missing class for them.

“If teachers didn’t have mandatory attendance that affected my grade, I would miss class in a second to watch the games,” Hofmann said.

Whether it’s making arrangements to skip out on class to watch games, or precisely creating their own brackets, sports fans on campus will all have one thing in common to talk about other than class for the next three weeks””basketball.

And for those of you who don’t get caught in the madness of March, take solace in the fact that with tournament followers being absent, the parking lot will likely be a little less mad than usual.